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Tuesday, 7 March 2017

The Australian Fat Boy

In 1861 the rear
ballroom of the North Kapunda Hotel became the show room of a curiosity which in
that era, was a novelty, but by today’s standards is nothing out of the
ordinary.

A young man named William Abernethy was “on display” in
Kapunda, touring Australia, after a successful tour of the United Kingdom,
promoted by his Father James Abernethy.

The North Kapunda Hotel

Young Master Abernethy
was billed overseas as “The Australian Marvel” or sometimes as “The Giant Youth”
but more often, in an environment that had no “politically correct” argument,
he was billed as “The Australian Fat Boy”.

William was born in
Brisbane and at 9 years old he had reached proportions not normally seen in the
mid 1800's. At nine years of age William measured 1.5M (4' 10') tall, he
measured 40.6cms (16'') around the arm, 124.5cms (49'') around the waist,
86.4cms (34'' ) around the thigh and 53cms (20.5'' ) around the knee.

He was described in one newspaper as having “all the
appearance of being in good health, and manages to walk and move about without
the least difficulty.”

By the time William
had reached 15 years old, not long after his “levee” in Kapunda, he had reached
a whopping 125Kg's (25 stone).

Only a few years later he would retire from the public
sideshow business. William lost most of his weight as he got older and
eventually lived an obscure life away from the public eye, passing away in the
early 1900's

All photos remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are displayed here for the purpose of education, research and review under the copyright act "fair usage" clause.

Some photo's used here on this site are sourced from The Sate Library of South Australia, and The National Library of Australia and http://www.gawler.nowandthen.net.au - all photos are out of copyright and have no usage restrictions implied.

All photos remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are displayed here for the purpose of education, research and review under the copyright act "fair usage" clause.

Some photo's used on this website are sourced from The Sate Library of South Australia, and The National Library of Australia and http://www.gawler.nowandthen.net.au - all photos are out of copyright and have no usage restrictions implied.

Top Paranormal

PANDORA

On the 7-1-2013, The Haunts of Adelaide was added to The National Library of Australia's "Pandora" archive.http://pandora.nla.gov.au/